A FORMER Metropolitan policeman and detective who was “pivotal” to a €200 million cocaine-smuggling plot that ended in rough seas off the coast of Cork was jailed for 22 years in London yesterday.
The conspiracy was foiled when the gang’s boat ran out of fuel and foundered off Mizen Head on July 2nd, 2007.
Michael Daly (49), who is already serving eight years behind bars for a similar conspiracy, was “driven by greed”, police said.
Judge Henry Blacksell sentenced Daly when he appeared at Blackfriars Crown Court in London alongside his co-conspirator, former firefighter Alan Wells (57) from Sidcup, London, who was jailed for 14 years.
Mark Gadsden, for the Crown, had told the court it remained the largest single drug seizure in the UK and Ireland.
Judge Blacksell described the quantity involved as “enormous”, adding: “You don’t have to work daily in the justice system to be aware of the devastating consequences of this amount of drugs being imported into this country.”
Malcolm Swift, for Daly, argued that the former policeman, who left the force in the 1990s after an incident where he was found drunk and disorderly, became involved in the plot to repay a debt.
Judge Blacksell told the former drug squad detective: “I’m not impressed at all about the debt aspect, if there’s any truth in that. You betrayed your colleagues let alone your own background.”
Mr Swift argued that Daly was not a main player in the plot, but Judge Blacksell told him: “You knew what your role was from the very first time you started organising false passports and the purchase of this Rib [rubber inflatable boat] from South Africa.”
Mr Swift said Daly knew he had “brought shame and dishonour down on those he loves”. He had never been a corrupt police office but had left the force after two incidents involving alcohol.
He went on to become a black cab driver but lost his licence in 2005 after he was caught drink-driving. He made the mistake of borrowing money from Martin Wanden – who has already been jailed for his part in the conspiracy – and felt obliged to help with the plot as a way to repay the debt.
He helped with the logistics and had local knowledge of Ireland but “was to play no part in the onward distribution of these drugs”.
Yesterday’s sentence will run consecutively with the eight-year sentence he is already serving.
It was the second time that the failure of a boat has left Daly facing many years behind bars. The 49-year-old former drugs squad officer is already serving eight years in jail for smuggling £4 million worth of cocaine and other drugs on to a beach in Kent in 2008. He was one of five men caught after the Rib developed problems as the gang tried to import the drugs into the UK from France. Daly set sail for France under cover of darkness on April 23rd, 2008. But the Rib developed problems during the journey and other gang members organised a van to be taken to France to return the Rib to the UK, police said. They were stopped by immigration officials in France and their plans began to fall apart.
Daly escaped but was later arrested on May 16th when he used another Rib in a bid to return to the UK. Officers were waiting as Daly landed the drug-laden Rib back on to the beach at Capel-le-Ferne in Kent at about 5.30am.
Martin Wanden, Daly’s brother Joe, and a third man, police killer Perry Wharrie, were convicted after a trial in Cork. Gerard Hagan (25), from Hollow Croft, Stockbridge Village, Liverpool, pleaded guilty and was jailed for 10 years.
Wharrie (50), of Pyrles Lane, Loughton, Essex, was released in 2005 after serving 17 years of a life sentence for murdering PC Frank Mason in 1988. He was sentenced to 30 years for his role in the conspiracy. Martin Wanden (47), a builder of Beech Avenue, Swanley, Kent also got 30 years. Joe Daly, a 43-year-old builder from Sutherland Avenue, Welling, Kent, was jailed for 25 years.– (PA)